Marinated Grilled Flank Steak Recipe | Simple Nourished Living (2024)

FAQs

How long should you cook flank steak on the grill? ›

Follow the directions for how long to grill Flank steak. For the perfect medium-rare Flank steak, grill for 9–12 minutes, turning about 1 minute before the halfway point. A meat thermometer should read 130°F. Rest your Flank steak for 5 minutes before serving, covering lightly with foil.

Rub a flank steak with olive oil, season it with salt and pepper and slide it onto a foil-lined sheet pan for easy cleanup. Then just broil it until it's medium-rare, 6 to 8 minutes. No flipping needed.

Marinate the meat for up to 48 hours, then cook with your preferred method. Discard the marinade due to bacteria from the raw meat. If you want to turn the Flank steak marinade into a sauce, make sure to bring it to a boil for 10 minutes before thickening or reducing it.

Then, once it starts to cook, the collagen won't be able to tighten back up as much, making a more tender piece of steak. You'll still want to follow the rule of cutting against the grain and if you want the full benefit of the marinade, even flatten and tenderize the steak with a meat mallet before marinating.

Closed lid means convection

When we're grilling, we all aim for food with a crusty, slightly charred exterior and a moist, tender interior. We want that result whether we're cooking a thin flank steak, or a thick slab of ribeye. We want it when we grill wispy asparagus, and also when we grill hearty potatoes.

The most important thing to do before you grill flank steak is to marinate it. Acidic marinades work well for a tougher piece of meat like flank steak, though you're always free to experiment. There are two main things to remember when marinating your flank steak: the lack of marbling and the high muscle fiber content.

Slow cooking a flank steak makes it incredibly tender, juicy, and flavorful.

Flank steak can be cut before or after cooking depending on the method: Grilled flank steak is best left intact to achieve an even sear on the outside, while reaching the desired level of doneness on the inside.

If your marinade contains citrus or a lot of vinegar like this flank steak marinade or marinades common for steak fajitas, don't marinate longer than 12 hours or the steak can become mushy; otherwise, you can marinate the steak for up to 24 hours.

Score Meat Before Marinating: To help the marinade penetrate as deeply as possible (especially thicker cuts like flank steak), prick the surface of the meat with a fork or score it with a knife.

Can you leave steak in marinade too long? ›

Most recipes for marinating meat and poultry recommend six hours up to 24 hours. It is safe to keep the food in the marinade longer, but after two days it is possible that the marinade can start to break down the fibers of the meat, causing it to become mushy.

There are several ways to velvet, but at its most basic level, it involves marinating meat with at least one ingredient that will make it alkaline. This is what tenderizes the meat, especially cheaper, tougher cuts. “People go for either egg white or baking soda as they are both alkaline ingredients.

The big advantage of dry rubs, and the reason we love using them so much, is that they don't add any additional moisture to the exterior of a piece of meat the way that a marinade does.

The critical reason for this is that flank steak, although lean and tasty, is tougher than other cuts of beef due to the many long, thin fibers running through it. To help tenderize flank steak, it is often marinated and cooked by grilling, stir-frying, broiling, or smoking.

You also want to start cooking when your meat is at room temperature, so take the meat out of the fridge at least 45 minutes before cooking; if you're only doing an hour for your brine or marinade, don't bother sticking it back in the fridge at all.